


picture perfect

by jaemarked



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25687333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaemarked/pseuds/jaemarked
Summary: Mark and Renjun in a series of snapshots.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Mark Lee
Comments: 12
Kudos: 105





	picture perfect

1.

“I dare you to kiss your crush.”

Truth or dare, Renjun thinks idly, is an evil, evil game, and should have been left behind in middle school, not played by drunken college students.

Jaemin shoots him a worried look when he rises unsteadily to his feet, but Renjun waves him off. The circle of onlookers are clearly awaiting eagerly to see what he’ll do.

Renjun walks over to the couch where Jeno and Mark are sitting. Jeno is giving him a look that reads _are you sure?_ and Renjun just shrugs at him.

Now or never has always been Renjun’s motto.

He cups Mark’s face, takes in his surprised look for a split second, and brings their lips together. He expects the hooting and hollering, but what he doesn’t expect is for Mark to tangle his fingers in Renjun’s hair and kiss him harder.

When they finally break apart, Mark is smiling, and that’s the beginning of their story.

2.

Renjun runs his thumb along the curve of Mark’s cheekbone. He’s asleep in Renjun’s lap, stress accumulating to the point where he needs a break or he’ll snap. Renjun doesn’t mind though. It’s nice outside, they’re seated in the shade of an enormous maple tree, and Jeno and Donghyuck are playing with a frisbee ten feet away.

Mark snuffles in his sleep, scrunching his nose lightly. Renjun leans over to kiss it and watches as Mark’s face smooths out. He laughs quietly to himself, the tips of his fingers trailing over Mark’s lips. He touches the mole on Mark’s cheek, then moves on to sink his fingers in Mark’s hair. It’s soft and smells like Renjun’s coconut conditioner, because Mark had crashed at Renjun and Jaemin’s place last night and showered in their bathroom this morning.

Renjun smooths his hand down Mark’s arm, frowning when he feels goosebumps. It’s not that cold, but Mark gets chilly easily, despite being from Canada.

“Jeno!” Renjun calls. “ _Jeno!”_

“What?” Jeno yells back, and surprisingly Mark doesn’t stir. He must be more tired than Renjun thought.

“Give me your jacket!” Renjun demands, and Jeno rolls his eyes, jogging over to where he and Donghyuck had discarded their jackets. He picks up both his and Donghyuck’s and hands them to Renjun, who drapes them over Mark’s legs and torso. He leans back to shrug out of his own jacket and covers Mark with it too. Mark sleeps on, oblivious to what’s happening around him. “Idiot,” he says to Mark’s sleeping form, “why didn’t you wear a jacket?”

“You’re so whipped for him,” Jeno says with a smirk.

“You’re one to talk,” Renjun says, just as Donghyuck begins calling for Jeno to continue their frisbee game.

“I’m coming!” Jeno yells, and Mark blinks awake in Renjun’s lap. Renjun doesn’t get a chance to scold Jeno before he jogs away, so he settles for rolling his eyes.

“Mmrgh?” Mark mumbles groggily.

“Shh, go back to sleep.” Renjun thumbs at Mark’s cheekbone, and Mark nuzzles into his touch, eyes falling shut again. Renjun’s heart melts, a swell of affection filling his chest as Mark falls back asleep.

Whipped, Jeno had said.

_Yeah, I guess I am._

3.

“What happened to your hands?”

Renjun hasn’t seen Mark in a couple days, but he finally found the time to come over to Mark’s apartment and spend the night.

Mark looks up from his book, and Renjun takes one of his bandage-covered hands in his own. They’re lurid neon, wrapped around his thin fingers. He has a bigger one plastered on the back of his hand. Renjun frowns; he hates seeing Mark hurt.

“Oh, I nicked myself a couple times in cooking class,” Mark says casually, returning to his book. His glasses slide down his nose, and Renjun pushes them up for him. “And I burned the back of my hand.”

“Cooking class?” Renjun repeats. Mark is taking a cooking class? He’s never had an interest in cooking before.

“Yeah,” Mark shrugs. “When we live together, it won’t be fair for you to do all the cooking.”

Renjun’s breath hitches. “You want to live with me?”

Mark looks up from his book, totally serious. “Of course I do.”

Renjun doesn’t know what to say to that. He wants to live with Mark, of course he does. He’s fantasized about them living together in a big house with two dogs. Specifically two golden retrievers, a female one and a male one. The female dog will have a pink collar and be named Wanda, and the male dog will have a green collar and be named Cosmo. He’s looked at interior design magazines and picked out colours for their kitchen. He’s always thought about them, their future.

He just didn’t know Mark does, too.

Mark isn’t good at romance. He tries, he really does. He brings Renjun flowers sometimes, or plans spontaneous dates, but he’s really bad at being open with his thoughts unless Renjun specifically asks him. And Renjun doesn’t mind, not at all, but he didn’t think that Mark pictured a future for them. He’s never mentioned moving in together, or getting married, or anything like that. And Renjun has (of course he has, he’d be stupid to not want to marry Mark) but he’s never mentioned it either, not wanting to pressure Mark in case he didn’t want the same.

Evidently he _does_ want the same.

Mark turns the page in his book and continues, “I don’t want either of us to be the stay-at-home husband, unless you want that in which case you’re totally valid—“

“You want to marry me?” Renjun doesn’t mean for it to come out so surprised-sounding but…he can’t deny that he’s shocked.

“Duh,” Mark says, finally putting his book down. “I can’t picture myself with anyone else.”

“Oh,” Renjun says, his heart stuttering in his chest.

He takes it back. Mark _is_ good at romance.

4.

Renjun walks through the front door, discarding his shoes in the entryway and making his way to the kitchen for some water. He’s home late, a celebratory dinner held by his coworkers running longer than he expected.

Mark is asleep at the kitchen table.

There’s a cake in front of him, “Congrats on your promotion!” spelled out in icing. It’s decorated with strawberries and whipped cream, though the cream is dripping off the sides of the cake. There are candles sticking out from the top, unlit and partially melted.

Renjun should wake him up. Mark is definitely killing his back by sleeping like this, bent over the table with his cheek pillowed on his arms. He should wake him and send him off to bed, tuck him in, crawl under the covers next to him. But he hasn’t slept next to Mark in a week, mostly crashing on the couch or in the guest room.

He should wake him up, but he doesn’t. He takes the candles out of the cake and puts it in the fridge. He looks at Mark, and his chest aches, so he shoves his feet into his shoes and leaves the apartment, shutting the door quietly behind him. Once he’s outside, he phones Jeno and asks if he can stay the night.

Jeno agrees, as always. Renjun takes a deep breath, locks the door, and heads out into the night.

He doesn’t know when Mark woke up, but when he returns to their apartment early the next morning, he’s nowhere to be seen.

“What’s going on with you, Jun?”

Donghyuck sits in front of Renjun, more serious than he’s ever been. Renjun looks away, staring at the rings of water on the table left by condensation. He can’t look Donghyuck in the eyes, shame and guilt filling his stomach.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Renjun says quietly, dragging his fingers through the water and leaving damp streaks across the wood.

“Tell me why Mark thinks you’re gonna break up with him,” Donghyuck demands. He’s never been one to shy away from any topic, always blunt and honest. Sometimes, people see it as mean, but Renjun has always appreciated that he doesn’t sugarcoat. Until now, that is, when he doesn’t feel like talking about it.

“I don’t know.”

“It’s not true, right?” Donghyuck asks, but Renjun stays silent. “What’s going on, Jun? Are you not happy with Mark anymore?”

Renjun raises one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me how you feel,” Donghyuck says, putting his hand on top of Renjun’s. “Maybe you need a vacation.”

“A vacation,” Renjun repeats incredulously.

“Yeah,” Donghyuck says. “You’ve been working really hard these past two years, maybe you just need some time to yourself. Do some soul-searching, you know?”

A vacation sounds nice, Renjun thinks. He hasn’t had time to himself in a while.

He goes home that night, tells Mark that he’s sorry, tells him he needs a break, that he needs time to fix what he isn’t sure is broken. Mark understands, or at least he says he does, helps him book a ticket. Renjun’s promotion has given him the ability to take time off short notice, and within a week he’s in a hotel room in a foreign country.

It only takes him three days to change his return flight. When he sees Mark in the airport, he bursts into tears and throws himself in Mark’s arms.

“I’m sorry,” Renjun says, over and over again. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Mark says in response. “We’re okay.”

When they’re laying next to each other in bed that night, Renjun explains what was happening. How the stress was getting to him. How his insecurities were piling up and for some reason he was starting to doubt their relationship. How when he was in Paris all he could think about was how much he wanted Mark next to him.

When he starts to cry, Mark pulls him close and kisses his cheeks and tells him that he loves him. Renjun tightens his fists in the fabric of Mark’s shirt, and they fall asleep like that.

In the morning when he wakes up, the world is clearer, and while he still has his doubts, they’re overpowered by the comfort he finds in Mark, and knows he will never want anything more than this.

5.

“Do you want to get married?”

“Are you proposing to me, Mark Lee?”

They’re sitting in the bathtub, Renjun in between Mark’s legs as he scrubs white strawberry shampoo through his hair. Mark had overdone it with the bubbles, but there are candles burning along the edge of the tub and the water is nice and hot.

“Not quite yet,” Mark says, and Renjun can hear the smile in his voice. He leans back against Mark’s shoulder, smearing shampoo on his skin. “But someday, I want to.”

“I think we’ve had this conversation before,” Renjun says, “but my answer hasn’t changed. I still want to marry you, Mark. I always will.”

“Good,” Mark replies, settling back against the tub. Renjun finds his hand under the water and curls his fingers around Mark’s, holding tightly. They’re going to get wrinkly, but it’s fine. There’s nowhere else he’d rather be than here in Mark’s arms.

6.

“That’s a gorgeous ring.”

“Oh!” Renjun glances at the ring on his left hand, a rose gold band embedded with tiny diamonds. Renjun had wanted something more subtle, and Mark had wanted something more extravagant, so they compromised. He turns back to the elderly lady standing next to him in the grocery store. “Thank you!”

“How long has it been?” She asks, her eyes sparkling.

Renjun smiles, grabbing a carton of strawberries and placing it in his basket. “Almost a year, now.”

“That’s so lovely!” She exclaims. “Well, congratulations! I hope you two live happily together.”

“Thank you,” Renjun murmurs. “I hope we do too.”

He waves her goodbye before hoisting his basket into his arms, wandering through the aisles looking for Mark. He finds him in the snack section, scowling at the display of chips.

“What did they ever do to you?” Renjun jokes, sidling next to Mark.

“Oh! Hi Renjun,” Mark greets him. “Nothing, I’m just… I’m not sure which ones Jisung would like.”

Jisung is a high school student doing an exchange program, and Renjun and Mark had volunteered to host him. He’s quiet and keeps mostly to himself, staying in the room they had prepared for him and eating whatever they gave him without complaints.

“Let’s just get a bunch of them,” Renjun suggests, and is happy when Mark agrees, piling three different flavours of chips into the basket. Renjun doesn’t like to rush shopping, but he _does_ need to get home and get started on dinner soon.

When they arrive home, Mark disappears into the kitchen to put away the groceries, and Renjun heads into the living room to take a quick break. To his surprise, he finds Jisung sitting on the couch, looking at a photo album that Renjun had left on the coffee table.

“Sorry!” Jisung says when he catches Renjun watching him, looking like a deer in headlights. “Sorry, it’s just… I was just curious.”

“It’s okay!” Renjun assures him, moving in closer to sit next to Jisung. “Oh, that was from our wedding day!” He smiles fondly at the memory of Donghyuck balancing on Jeno’s shoulders for the perfect angle of Mark and Renjun. It had been a private affair, with only close friends and family attending, but Renjun had loved every second of it.

“How did you two end up together?” Jisung asks, and Renjun grins, walking over to the bookshelf to pull out another album. This one was much older, frayed at the bindings, with a Polaroid of him and Mark in the front.

“Well,” Renjun says, settling down on the couch once more, “it all started at this house party…”

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/jaemarkism)  
>  [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/jaemarked)


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